Easy Chilli Plum Sauce Recipe

The lazy part of me, and that is a big part sadly, initially wonders, “why would you bother making chilli plum sauce at home when you can buy it?” One very good reason, making sauce is dead easy, especially my chilli plum sauce. And there is nothing like a bit of self love from a bottle of sauce.

Self love? Yes, the second very good reason, I’m sharing my narcissism here, is how home made sauces, jams, relishes etc, make me feel. I feel clever, smart and more of a domestic goddess than bloody Nigella Lawson. Nothing like condiment making for self love and placing oneself on a pedestal.

And why not make something that effortlessly makes you feel like king shit in the kitchen. You see, sauce (or any other condiment for that matter) just keeps on giving you that “oh yeah (head nod), I’m shit hot” feeling.

You make it. Tell you family how brilliant and clever you are. They have some with something. Then it goes in the fridge (and others that you have canned in the cupboard), and it is bought out again a few days, a week, a month later, and you have that same “who’s a clever girl” feeling. Feel free to bum wiggle each and every time.

A completely different feeling to making a cake or other dish that is devoured within 48 hours. It’s gone. No sauce bottle to remind you how clever and brilliant you are when you open the fridge door a thousand times a day. No whipping out the bottle when friends come over for a BBQ. Where you present your sauce with a ‘look what I make earlier”. Standing there with the broadest smile as you wait for them to tell you how amazing you are.

Okay, all off the above is probably just me. But when there’s an abundance of beautiful seasonal produce around, my dear friends, make sauce!

For my chilli plum sauce recipe, I sourced some small and beautifully ripe sugarplums from the local farmers’ market. You can use any plums you want. Of course they’ll all give your sauce a slightly different taste, mainly the sweetness. I have plans to make this one again using blood plums. That will probably be next season, as we have enough sauce to keep us going at present.

The sauce is a sweet and sour balance with a mellow chilli kick. Not overpowering and perfect for those of us that like the flavour of chilli, but can live without mouth numbing heat. I have added star anise and ginger to give it an Asian slant, but again these flavours meld into the background for balance.

Chilli Plum Sauce

Course:
Condiments/Sauces/Marinades

Prep Time:15minutes

Cook Time:1hour

Total Time:1hour15minutes

Servings:38servings

Calories:42kcal

Author:Sara McCleary

Easy to make chilli plum sauce recipe. A balance of sweet and savoury with a mellow chilli heat.

Ingredients

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a large heavy based saucepan. Stir over a medium heat, without boiling, until sugar has completely dissolved.

Increase heat and simmer ingredients for around 45 minutes until plums have broken down and the mixture is pulpy.

Remove from heat and strain the mixture. Return the strained mixture to the stove and cook a further 10 minutes until thickened.

Place sauce in sterilised jars. Store in fridge. Makes around 3 cups.

Nutrition Facts

Chilli Plum Sauce

Amount Per Serving

Calories 42

% Daily Value*

Sodium 82mg3%

Potassium 60mg2%

Total Carbohydrates 10g3%

Sugars 9g

Vitamin A2.9%

Vitamin C13.3%

Calcium0.4%

Iron0.8%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

I didn’t ‘can’ my sauce. It went into a bottle and into the fridge. I will get a few months out of it. If you want to you could ‘can’ smaller quantities in jars, so that consumption could be spread throughout the year.

You may be wondering why the plum stones are used in this recipe. The pectin in the stones naturally thicken your sauce during the cooking process.

A simple recipe for those of us narcissists that need that self love every now and again. Even if that self praise comes in the form of a bottle of sauce.

Sara xxx

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Its so nice to have condiments in the pantry that you have made from scratch and only have a small handful of fresh ingredients. I hate eating food with ingredients I cannot read.Martine @ Chompchomp recently posted..Lake House, Daylesford

This recipe is a must try for me. I buy (and not make) my sauce and sometimes get disappointed with the taste. Your recipe seems to be just the sauce with the right amount of kick I’ve been looking for.

I’ve just made this plum sauce, using blood plums and
quadrupling the quantities….I was very particular about making sure my quantities were all quadrupled…it came out VERY vinegary…so much so, that I’m thinking of labelling it plum vinegar dipping sauce. If I made the recipe again I would at least halve the amount of vinegar…

Firstly its sad to hear that the recipe didn’t work out for you when you altered the quantities of the original recipe.

Unfortunately not all recipes work if you just quadruple the amounts. I know in theory you would think that they would work, but in practice this isn’t always the case.. It also works the other way, you can’t just half the ingredients in most recipes to get the same result in a smaller portion.

A good example of this is making a cake.

I totally agree with you that half the vinegar (or less/more, would need to test) if making a larger batch would be the way to go.

I ended up making another batch with no vinegar and combining the two batches. I also sautéed a couple of large chopped brown onions and added to the mix before pressing through the sieve. It added a nice earthiness to the sauce. ????

I just made this sauce, from 2 kg plums from a friend’s tree, but added garlic, fresh turmeric, fresh ginger (not dried), and a small onion. I had to add a tiny bit of pectin at the very last stage, when cooking the drained sauce, as it wasn’t thickening up as much as I would’ve liked. Wow-it’s got a kick! I think it needs to mellow for a few weeks in the bottle before I use it.